Revenge is a dish best served cold, like the Cavs in the Finals.

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2017 NBA Finals.

NBA tip-off is upon us and just like every other year, there’s an intriguing set of games to watch to get you excited for opening night. The Warriors will take on the Rockets, this potential conference finals matchup that includes the defending champs should be a good game to see. But another game on the seventeenth has got most of the public’s attention… On August 10, when the NBA released the schedule, the Celtics at the Cavaliers was a smart move for the NBA to put as the league’s very first game for multiple reasons. It was to be a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals of last season, the Celtics have just acquired an all-star in Gordon Hayward and drafted in the top three (thanks to Brooklyn) so it looked as if the Celtics were going to give the Cavs a run for their money this year. Then the NBA looked real smart on August 22, when the blockbuster trade took place.

 Blindsided. That’s the word to describe this trade. The Cavs sent Kyrie Irving to the Celtics in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, the Nets first rounder next season and a 2020 second round pick. As a Celtics fan, this hit me hard. Isaiah was our guy, the man had led our team since the Celtics acquired him in 2015. Fans were angered by one person, Danny Ainge. Danny was infamous for having “ all the assets” but never making a move. Then this offseason, nobody thinks Danny’s like that anymore, this is true to the fact that the Celtics have only 4 returning players from last season’s roster. But Ainge took a chance with this huge deal, and the reviews have been mixed, as some don’t feel as if the Celtics got enough in return for what they gave up. Fans weren’t the only ones with hard feelings after the trade. Isaiah Thomas stated, “it’s gonna be all love when I go back to Boston, except for Danny Ainge, I probably won’t ever speak to him again.”

Players get traded all the time, especially this offseason where more all-stars switched teams than almost any other. what’s the big deal? LeBron James, that’s the big deal. LeBron James is the best basketball player in the world and one of the, if not the biggest name in all of sports. LeBron helped lead the Cavs to three straight Finals, including one championship. But LeBron wasn’t the only one, he had help from all-stars Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. It’s easy to say that without Kyrie’s infamous go-ahead three-pointer in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, there’s no ring for the city of Cleveland. Then during this summer, Kyrie tells the Cavs front office that he is no longer happy playing alongside LeBron and wants to be somewhere where he can be considered “the man”. This came as a huge shock to most people and even LeBron himself. Nobody knew really what to make of this and a few weeks went by and people forgot about it. That’s when August 22 hit.

After the deal had been completed, it was clear that this was gonna more than just a game on the schedule for both teams, for the Celtics, it’s time for Kyrie to back up his talk. He wanted to be the man, and now he is and he’s out to prove that he doesn’t need James in order to win. For the Cavs, it’s all about the king, LeBron was just told publicly that his teammate no longer wanted to play with him. He’s out to show that he doesn’t need Kyrie. This would be another revenge game for Isaiah Thomas, but a hip injury has him sidelined for a large portion of this coming season. This game has got all the hype, let’s see if it lives up to it.